Personal safety equipment is required to be used in a many professions, particularly those where work is performed in hazardous locations, such as at significant height. As such, a variety of styles and types of harnesses and safety lanyards have been developed for use in particular situations. Many of them include secondary safety features such as break-away attachments, shock absorbing features, stretchable and/or elastic designs, as well as a multitude of attachment mechanisms. Professionals who rely on their personal safety equipment often ensure that it meets all OSHA, ANSI, and CSA requirements and habitually check the integrity of their equipment.
Usually such equipment is attached to a person's body or clothing and to another object or anchorage point. It is designed to deploy when a particular situation or certain circumstances arise. Some designs protect the person from falls or other impact and subsequent bodily injury therefrom, by deploying when sufficient stress is applied to the lanyard. Still others are designed to be worn around the neck, arm or leg to attach various devices to the body, e.g., MPS, cell phones, GPS devices, tools, shut-off keys, and/or emergency beacons, and can include breakaway features to prevent choking or other injury should the lanyard become entangled or caught. For example, machinists may have regularly used tools or equipment attached to themselves via a safety lanyard designed to break-away should it become entangled or caught in equipment.
When a safety lanyard is deployed, it is often the result of an emergency situation where the person or object has been unintentionally moved away from a particular location or position, such as by falling, toppling, being thrown, entangled or otherwise moved, more than a safe distance from where the person or object was attached. Once the person moves beyond the predetermined length of the safety lanyard, secondary safety features can be deployed to prevent or reduce bodily injury. Some safety lanyards include stretchable and/or elastic material that can expand beyond the nominal length when sufficient stress is applied. Others include single- or multi-stage shock absorbing stitching that breaks with the application of sufficient stress or load to allow the lanyard to lengthen in stages and thereby reduce the overall G-forces on the body during a fall. Those used for holding devices, particularly around the neck, often include break-away features that allow them to be automatically disconnected from the body, such as by the lanyard breaking apart at a pre-determined point(s).
When a lanyard is deployed, it is often the case that the person or object attached to it has been placed in a dire situation. If the person or object has fallen or been thrown, the lanyard can deploy to prevent deadly force, but the person may still be injured or unable to climb back to a safe location. The disadvantage of current safety lanyard designs is that they do not provide any assistance to the person after deployment. Safety lanyards that break away from the body can prevent or reduce injury, but any devices that were attached, such as a cell phone, a GPS device, or an emergency beacon, could subsequently be too far away to be useful. Other safety lanyards that prevent or reduce impact from falling, may still remain attached, but the person could be injured or in a situation where he is unable to help himself.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved personal safety equipment that incorporates emergency contact features. More specifically, there is a need for a “smart” safety lanyard that can, if deployed, transmit a signal, alarm, or otherwise initiate contact with appropriate response personnel.